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ABC 6 history
ABC 6 company history timeline
The station began broadcasting on January 1, 1963, as WTEV from studios on 430 County Street in New Bedford.
ABC’s golden era began with the arrival of programming executive Fred Silverman in 1975.
With the appointment of then president of ABC Sports, Roone Arledge as president of ABC News in 1977, ABC invested the resources to make it a major source of news content.
In 1979, the Steinmans sold WTEV and their flagship station, WGAL-TV in Lancaster, to Pulitzer Publishing.
Pulitzer changed channel 6's call letters to the present-day WLNE-TV on September 8, 1980.
Satellite News Channel was a joint venture between ABC News and Group W that launched on June 21, 1982, as a satellite-delivered cable television network.
However, this channel had difficulty getting clearance from cable systems, so ABC News and Group W decided to sell it to its competitor, CNN (a subsidiary of Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System). CNN ceased Satellite News Channel's operations on October 27, 1983.
In 1983, Pulitzer sold WLNE to Freedom Communications.
Scandal erupted in 1985 over a decision by Arledge, president of ABC News and Sports, to kill a 13-minute report about Marilyn Monroe possibly due to his close ties to Ethel Kennedy.
CBS announced in March 1995 that it would purchase WPRI-TV and move its programming there.
Starwave had owned and operated ESPNet SportsZone (later known as ESPN.com) since 1995, which licensed the ESPN brand and video clips from ABC's corporate sister ESPN Inc.
ABCNews.com launched on May 15, 1997, by ABC News Internet Ventures, a joint venture between Starwave and ABC formed in April 1997.
In June 1998, ABC News (which owned an 80% stake in the service), Nine Network and ITN sold their respective interests in Worldwide Television News to the Associated Press.
ABC News Now was a 24-hour cable news network that launched on July 26, 2004, as a digital subchannel by ABC News, being the company's second attempt in the 24-hour cable news world after Satellite News Channel.
Early in the afternoon of May 4, 2005, WLNE's analog transmitter was knocked off the air due to a faulty section of transmission line on the tower.
In August 2006, The Providence Journal reported that WLNE was put up for sale.
On March 12, 2007, Freedom announced it was selling WLNE to Global Broadcasting, a Delaware corporation headed by Robinson Ewert and Kevin O'Brien.
In 2009 Donaldson retired from full-time work.
On December 13, 2010, rumors surfaced that A.H. Belo Corp. would buy WLNE and merge its operations with those of The Providence Journal—despite the fact that the company was formed from the split of non-broadcasting operations from Belo Corporation.
On February 10, 2011, Citadel Communications of Bronxville, New York, was chosen as the stalking horse bid in the sale of the station with a bid of $4 million.
On March 17, ABC notified potential buyers that WLNE's affiliation with the network beyond March 31, 2011, was not assured, which Global Broadcasting CEO Kevin O'Brien said could depress the final price WLNE is sold for at auction.
ABC and Univision formally announced its launch on May 2, 2012.
Launched on October 28, 2013, Fusion features a mix of traditional news and investigative programs along with satirical content aimed at English-speaking Hispanic and Latino American adults between the ages of 18 and 34.
In December 2015, it was reported that Disney was in talks to sell its stake in Fusion to Univision.
In April 2018, it was announced that FiveThirtyEight would be transferred to ABC News from ESPN, Inc., majority owned by The Walt Disney Company.
On September 10, 2018, ABC News launched a second attempt to extend its Good Morning America brand into the afternoon with Strahan, Sara and Keke.
In 2018, ABC News, and Good Morning America specifically, ended the hosting partnership with Yahoo, instead opting to continue separate web presences.
On May 16, 2019, it was announced that Standard Media, a company led by former Young Broadcasting and Media General executive Deb McDermott, would acquire WLNE and KLKN for $83 million.
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ABC 6 may also be known as or be related to ABC 6 and Abc 6.